I’m moving to the Back Bay!
Saturday, Apr 26 2008

In Paris, it’s the 8ème arrondissement. In New York, it’s the Upper East Side. In London, it’s Knightsbridge; in Miami, it’s South Beach; in Washington, D.C., it’s Georgetown.

In Boston, it’s the Back Bay — the most upscale and luxurious neighborhood in the city.

And I am moving there on September 1!

My sister and I have planned to live together for the ’08/’09 school year. This is for two main reasons: first of all, we miss each other so much, even as often as we see each other! Secondly, this is Sarah’s last year in Boston before moving to Los Angeles. This is our last chance.

Also, as much as I LOVE my apartment and living in Davis Square, it’s time for me to live downtown. It takes me about 15 minutes to get to Park Street from Davis, plus a 10-minute walk to the T in the first place, and while that isn’t very long in retrospect, it’s starting to bother me. I want to be closer.

Sars is a film student at Emerson College, which is in the Theatre District. Because of this, and because of all of her late nights working on films and projects, she needs to be downtown. She is currently moving out of her Chinatown apartment just a few blocks away from school.

We were open to living in several different places. Although the South End was my first choice (I will live there someday!), we were open to living in Beacon Hill, Bay Village, the North End, Fenway, the Longwood Medical Area and even as far as Central Square in Cambridge and Coolidge Corner in Brookline. (ANYWHERE but Allston/Brighton.)

This place popped up on our radar. We saw it the first day it went on the market, and when we saw what an amazing deal it was, we immediately pounced on it.

That being said, it’s small.

It’s a two-bed split: that means that there are two bedrooms and no living room. When you walk in, there’s a hallway running from left to right. There is a bedroom on the left side (with a bay window!) and a bedroom on the right side. In the middle are a kitchen (tiny! Not eat-in!) and a bathroom.

The apartment is in a brownstone near Berklee College of Music, technically in the Back Bay but right by Symphony and Fenway. When you walk into the building, ours is the apartment immediately on the left, right next to the mailboxes!

And there are TONS of Berklee students there. The guy living above us plays the drums. Yikes. He says he mainly plays at school, though. It’s almost like dorm life. Hopefully we’ll have some of the benefits of dorm life, like getting to meet new people all the time.

Yes, living in a place this small will be a challenge, but at least the bedrooms are large. Besides, since we’re so close, we don’t mind hanging out in each other’s bedrooms, and we aren’t shy to having friends hang out there, either, like some people are.

Also, I will be getting rid of my car. I’m very nervous about this, but I know it’s ultimately the right decision, considering gas prices, the environment and the deteriorating state of my car. I won’t visit my parents and friends in Reading and Wakefield as often, but I can always take the orange line to Oak Grove, a 15-minute drive from my mom, or even take the commuter rail.

Plus, my dad loves coming into town whenever he can and has been doing it a LOT since Sarah and I moved here. (I kind of have the feeling that he might relocate to a condo in Charlestown or Cambridge five years from now.)

And Whole Foods and Trader Joe’s are right in the neighborhood, along with a Shaw’s! We’ll need to get one of those old lady carts.

I have to say that I have had a FANTASTIC living situation for the past 16 months. My apartment is terrific, and I have wonderful roommates and landlords. My roommates have become three of my closest friends, and considering some of the roommate experiences I’ve had in the past, that’s an incredible gift! I will miss them dearly.

So…if you’re looking for a place to live, I have a great Davis Square apartment that I can offer you, starting September 1 (which is Labor Day).